


The One Where Arthur and Merlin Have Their First Date

by n00blici0us



Series: The Gym AU [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-08-27
Updated: 2011-08-27
Packaged: 2017-10-23 03:05:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/245595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/n00blici0us/pseuds/n00blici0us
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arthur takes Merlin out on their first date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The One Where Arthur and Merlin Have Their First Date

Arthur knocked on the door of the modest flat and straightened his tie absently. He hadn’t felt this nervous on a date since his homecoming dance, junior year of high school when he took Lisa O’Loughlin, the hottest senior in the school. (It had gone spectacularly well and ended with a night to remember in the back of his dad’s car. He never told Uther about it. Uther had loved that car.) So yes, nerves were a bit foreign to him, but then again, he had never asked out his football buddy’s friend on a date at the end of a yoga class that he had been teaching, as convoluted as that thought was. The door opened.

“Arthur, hey,” Lance greeted him affably, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He gestured behind him, “Come on in; I think Merlin’s just about ready.”

“Are you just getting up?” Arthur asked, “Are you aware that it is nearly 8pm?”

“Yes,” Lance grumbled at him good naturedly. “There were… last minute set changes with Gwen’s show and guess who is the lucky guy in charge of overseeing all of that? So we were basically working all through last night and this morning to get ready for tomorrow’s opening.”

“The perks of being the boyfriend of the lead, I suppose,” Arthur said, following Lance inside.

“You’re coming, right?”

“Of course,” Arthur said, “I wouldn’t miss it.” He hesitated a second before soldiering on, “But, er, how long is it exactly? Because I’m completely in to support Gwen,” he said quickly, “But I was just wondering about a general timeline.”

“Hours,” Lance said with a straight face. “It’s like, at least 5 acts. It’s multiple scene changes. There are 2 intermissions due to length.”

Arthur stared at him for a long second and bit his lip. “That sounds great. Just. Great. I’m so looking forward to it, man.”

“Oh god, don’t torture the poor man,” Merlin said as he came down the stairs. “It’s just an hour,” he informed Arthur as he stopped a few feet away from him and Arthur had to suck in a breath because Merlin looked good. His hair was messily ruffled, a few strands falling in front of his eyes, making them appear even bluer. Arthur didn’t remember Merlin’s grin being quite so infectious and whole-hearted and just like that, his nerves kick in again.

“Uh,” he managed to squeeze out, “Hi, you look great.”

Merlin looked down at his blue striped button down (“It’ll bring out your eyes,” Gwen had said when she had picked it out of his closet) and dark jeans. “Thanks,” he replied, a little self-consciously, hand automatically coming up to brush the cowlicks on his head. He wiggled his stockinged feet. “Just let me grab my shoes and I’ll be ready to go.” He went to the front door and grabbed a pair of dark red Converses.

Arthur stuffed his hands into the pockets of his trousers (dark grey and cut to show off his arse fabulously, or so the salesgirl had said) and nodded amiably to Lance, “See you later then, mate.”

“Don’t forget protection!” Lance called from the living room.

“Oh fuck you,” Merlin groused good-naturedly. “Don’t wait up,” Merlin called to Lance as they exited the flat. Arthur hurried over to open the car door for Merlin. Merlin blushed as prettily as Arthur remembered, tips of his ears reddening. “Thanks,” he stammered, sliding in. “Where are we going?”

“Oh,” Arthur said, “Er, this place about ten minutes away, Nori. Have you heard of it?”

“Uh, yeah,” Merlin answered. “Avant-garde food stuff.”

“Yeah, I hope you’re up for that.”

Merlin shrugged, “I’m pretty easy,” he said, waggling his eyebrows. At that, Arthur nearly backed the car into the neighbor’s.

It was a tasting menu, so naturally dinner took a long time, but Arthur didn’t feel like time dragged at all. He and Merlin fell so easily in conversation that it felt absurd that they had only met a few days ago. “How do you know Lance?” he asked.

“Oh, we met in uni. Lance, Gwen and I were pretty much inseparable after the first week. See, uh, he was my RA freshman year. I met Gwen on our Outdoor Action trip so we were basically already thick as thieves. We might have gotten up to a little mischief involving wet floor signs and dining hall mugs but Lance managed to bail us out and I’ll deny any involvement if you ask.”

Arthur blinked a bit, “Wet floor signs?”

Merlin blushed, “Just a little bit of tomfoolery, that’s all.”

Arthur thought it was adorable. Merlin used words like tomfoolery and he pulled pranks with his friend Gwen, prank involving ludicrous objects.

“What about you?” Merlin asked.

“Hmm? Oh, Lance and I are on the same intramural football team.”

“Right,” Merlin said. “He said you’re really good, almost played professionally?”

“Yeah,” Arthur made a face. He didn’t like thinking about it but, “I went to uni on a football scholarship. Was going to sign with Manchester but junior year, championship finals I got spiked, hard, in the knee as I was going in for a goal. Fucking Val. My ACL never really recovered so there went that dream. I spent senior year changing to an economics major.”

“Oh,” Merlin said. “I’m sorry to hear that.” He lightly brushed Arthur’s hand with his own.

Arthur smiled, “It’s fine. I still get to play footy with Lance.”

“And now you work at Camelot Industries with Uther?”

“Yes,” Arthur said slowly, “I work for my father at his company, just like he always wanted.” He cast about for another topic to talk about because he didn’t want to talk about this, not on their first date, when the water brought around the next course (already, they were on desserts? How had the course progressions moved so fast?), a beaker full of a bubbly liquid with a faux-packing peanut on top. “Look at that; that looks so lovely.”

“You’re totally lying,” Merlin grinned, “I can tell by the way you bit your lip before you said anything.”

Arthur was delighted, “You notice things about me?” Merlin blushed again. Arthur was going to start keeping count of how many times he could make the tips of Merlin’s ears go red (so far he was up to 3 but he was shooting for at least half a dozen before the night was out) and what other things he could do to make them go red.

As the last plates were cleared away, Merlin’s stomach gave a low growl. “Er,” he said, “I guess I could eat some more.”

“Oh god,” Arthur laughed, “This is the first and last time that I let my father pick out the restaurant. I could definitely go for a burger now.”

“Wait, wait,” Merlin said, beginning to laugh as well, “We came here because your dad recommended it?”

“He said it was great! Highly recommended!”

Merlin couldn’t stop laughing. “The look,” he gasped out in between laughs, “on your face when he brought out the bowl with the brown stuff in it.”

“It was a spoonful of what looked like dirt. What about your face when you tasted the snowman?”

“I guess I’m just not fancy enough for mousses or frappes or whatever the hell that was.” Merlin scrunched up his face a little, probably thinking about that course.

“Hey,” Arthur said softly, reaching across the table and taking Merlin’s hand with his, all the amusement gone leaving behind something much better in its place. “Why don’t we get out of here and forget the burger?” He wanted to get out of the stuffy restaurant, loosen his tie, unbutton a few buttons on Merlin’s shirt and taste the hollow in his neck. He wanted to see Merlin’s eyes light up, wanted to muss up his hair and wanted to feel Merlin return the same desire.

Merlin looked down at their intertwined fingers, the soft light from the candle casting shadows on his face and smiled. “I’m vegetarian anyway. Your place or mine?”


End file.
